Can The Santa Monica Pier Become A Great Concert Venue?

Comments 3 Los Angeles concert promoters Mitchell Frank, left, and Martin Fleischmann are bringing concerts and festivals to the Santa Monica Pier. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times / September 26, 2013) Also By Mikael Wood October 5, 2013, 7:00 a.m. A stiff breeze blew across the Santa Monica Pier on a recent afternoon, kicking up sand and sea spray as visitors munched fried food and watched a man paint names on a grain of rice. But sheltered inside a seafood joint, Mitchell Frank and Martin Fleischmann didn’t seem concerned with the weather perhaps because they were busy describing winds of change. “What we’re trying to do is create a destination for locals on the pier,” said Fleischmann, a veteran Los Angeles concert promoter. “Tourists are here all day long, but otherwise it’s underutilized.” Added Frank, another promoter hired by the nonprofit group that oversees the pier, “The mandate was to bring content here.” PHOTOS: Concerts by The Times Content in the form of musical performances isn’t unheard of on the pier, which last month wrapped its 29th annual Twilight Concert series with a free show by the reggae star Jimmy Cliff. The gig drew 30,000 people, according to some estimates. But this year the promoters expanded the menu with a slate of ticketed festivals, including All Bands on Deck! (with indie acts such as Poolside and Yacht) and September’s Beach Ball (featuring Aloe Blacc and Sly & Robbie). This weekend the pier is to host Way Over Yonder, an inaugural two-day roots-music event connected to the venerable Newport Folk Festival with performances Saturday and Sunday by Neko Case, Conor Oberst and Calexico. And Oct. 19 will bring the comedy-based Festival Supreme, assembled by Jack Black and his mock-rock band Tenacious D. The shows are part of what pier official Jay Farrand called “a larger effort to get people to take a second look at the pier to think of it not just as somewhere you take Grandma from Kansas.” But for Frank and Fleischmann whose respective companies, Spaceland and Rum & Humble, put on concerts at the Echo and the Hollywood Bowl, among other spots the activity also reflects their desire to establish a new home for music on the Westside, where a dearth of large and mid-sized venues intensified with the closing this summer of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

Jason Aldean’s 8th ‘Concert for the Cure’ set for New Orleans later this month (Video)

25, at Louisiana’s New Orleans Arena. Now in its eight year, Aldean’s 2013 “Concert for the Cure” event will take place at a venue where his Night Train Tour was a sell-put, according to an Oct. 5 missive from the entertainer’s PR camp. Throughout the year, Aldean –who is nominated for the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year trophy for the third time — sets aside 50 cents of each concert ticket sold, then selects one show market in October and donates all proceeds to its local Susan G. Komen affiliate. “Last year. the Komen New Orleans team needed a little over $1 million to meet all their needs, but they were only able to fund about half of that,” Aldean said. “If we raise the half a million that we did last year in Dallas, we’ll be able to help these women meet their goal and provide the services the town needs.” Now celebrating a second week atop the Billboard chart with his 12th No. 1 single, “Night Train,” Aldean landed three nods in this year’s CMA Awards, which will be held Nov. 6, including Male Vocalist of the Year and Musical Event of the Year for “The Only Way I Know” featuring Luke Bryan and Eric Church. For now, though, the Georgia-born performer’s mind is not on trophy wins, but on helping others via this month’s “Concert for the Cure.” “I can’t wait to see an arena full of pink in support of such a great cause!” he exclaimed. Video bonus: To see Aldean’s official “Night Train” music video, please access the clip embedded with this post. Suggested by the author